October 2010

25th October 2010

12:01 PM — Two thousand people braved the wind and rain to join a London vigil to remember victims of hate crime on Saturday evening. The crowd assembled in Trafalgar Square and heard speeches by equality minister Lynne Featherstone and Stuart Milk, the nephew of murdered US gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

5:20 PM — Several gays and lesbians in Uganda say they have been attacked after a newspaper published their names, photographs and addresses. After the Rolling Stone newspaper called for them to be hanged, a gay activist in the country says that one woman was almost killed when her neighbours pelted her house with stones.

4:29 PM — Aid group Iraqi LGBT is to hold a fundraising night in central London next week. The group is celebrating five years of supporting persecuted LGBT Iraqis and claims to have helped save the lives of 100 people.

3:16 PM — A vigil will be held in London's Trafalgar Square tomorrow to remember victims of hate crime. Speakers will include Stuart Milk, the nephew of murdered gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk, Stephen Brookes MBE, from the Disability Hate Crime network, and deputy Mayor of London Richard Barnes.

3:00 PM — The US military's ban on out gay soldiers has come back into force with some changes. Defence secretary Robert Gates announced yesterday that the power to fire individuals who have been outed will lie in the hands of just a handful of high-ranking officials.

1:56 PM — Facebook 'outs' gay users through some of its targeted ads, researchers have discovered. They found that some ads which were completely neutral to sexual orientation (such as a nursing degree at a Florida medical college) were targeted exclusively at gay man.

11:15 AM — eBay has apologised for barring gay couples from a competition. The French version of the auction site was accused of discrimination this week after it stated that a competition prize could only be won by a male and female couple.

10:42 AM — US president Barack Obama has become the most high-profile figure to join a campaign to stop gay teen suicides. He recorded a short video for the It Gets Better YouTube project, which aims to encourage bullied gay teenagers that their lives will improve.

21st October 2010

5:20 PM — A new study says that penguins who engage in same-sex mating displays are flirty, rather than gay. Incidences of homosexuality in the species have been well-documented and one male penguin couple at San Francisco Zoo were together for six years before splitting up in 2009.

4:50 PM — The father of a nine-year-old says he was forced to give up a leadership role in the Scouts because he is gay. Jon Langbert of Dallas, Texas, is openly gay and says he was given a 'leader' t-shirt by the Scouts group last year which he wore with pride.

4:14 PM — Gareth Thomas, the out gay former Welsh rugby captain, is planning to join a London rugby union team. The star briefly switched to league team Crusaders this year and is due to play France in the Wales league squad this weekend.

3:00 PM — Israel's version of Dancing With the Stars is to include a same-sex couple for the first time. TV presenter Gili Shem Tov, who is a lesbian, will be paired with professional dancer Dorit Milman in the new series which starts next month.

1:48 PM — US magazine Rolling Stone has condemned the Ugandan newspaper of the same name for calling for gays to be executed. The US title said it had demanded that the African publication cease using its name.

5:22 PM — A Ugandan newspaper has published the names, addresses and photographs of the country's "top" gays and lesbians. Rolling Stone, which has no connection to the US magazine of the same name, had a banner across its front page which read "hang them".

5:03 PM — As the dust settles on the last week’s events, a key question is: has Stonewall, through the Bill Leckie affair, done itself irreparable damage? Or have valuable lessons been learnt, with outlook for the future rosier than before?

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